


James Buchanan "Santa Claus" Barnes

by orphan_account



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bakery, Christmas, M/M, i had no idea what i was doing but it was fun to write anyway, i was feeling festive, maybe i'll make it longer later who knows, this is the shortest thing i've ever written in the history of ever like wow
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-05
Updated: 2015-12-05
Packaged: 2018-05-05 03:42:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5359793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bucky is the Santa Claus at Natasha's bakery. And he is not happy about it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	James Buchanan "Santa Claus" Barnes

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this today just for fun because I'm actively avoiding my novel and my longer fics. My mom tells me it's early for Christmas stuff and I'm like "screw you" so here's this and I hope you like! Stalk me/befriend me on tumblr at hearteyesmonroe.tumblr.com

“Dammit, Natasha, where do you even get these ideas?”

“C’mon, James, think of the children.”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

“Nope, you’re gonna do it.”

“I’m not even old enough! And I don’t have a beard–”

“We’ll get you a fake one, no problem.”

“I am not going to be a Santa Claus for you!”

Natasha sighed. “Okay, I didn’t want to do this, but….”

“Oh no.”

“Oh yes.”

“Not the pictures.”

“Yes the pictures.”

“I swear to god….” Bucky sighed, pressing his palms to his eyes. “Why do you even need a Santa for a bakery?”

“It’ll get people to come in with their kids. Kids want sweets. It’ll work, trust me.”

“You’ve lost your mind.”

“But you’ll do it, right?”

“I feel like I’m the worst possible option for this.”

“You’re all I’ve got.”

“You seriously need to hire more people.”

“I’d ask Peggy to do it, but I feel like she’d be an even worse Santa than you.”

“Thanks, Natasha.”

She patted his shoulder. “Any time.”

***

Steve walked down the sidewalk at as fast a pace as he could with a tiny hand clutched in his, trying to find Sam, who had taken off on his own while they were shopping for Christmas gifts together, in order to return his child.

“You’ll be fine with her for a few minutes, right?” he had said. “I wanna get her a gift without her seeing.”

“Um–uh–yeah, sure,” Steve had stammered. He wasn’t used to being left alone with children, but he’d been pretty sure he could manage.

As it turned out, she was a delight, but he was starting to get anxious that he was going to lose her or that something else awful would happen, so now he was headed for the toy store, squeezing the little girl’s hand as tightly as possible.

“Uncle Steve,” she gasped, stopping suddenly. “Santa’s in the bakery!”

He stopped in front of her and peered in the window. She was right.

“Can I go see him? Please?” Her eyes went all big as she said it, and no matter how much of a hurry Steve was in, he just couldn’t say no to that face.

“Yeah, okay.”

They went in, the bell over the door ringing as they opened it, and they joined the short line to see Santa Claus.

When it was her turn, she jumped up on his lap and beamed up at him.

“I want a stuffed kitty for Christmas,” she said with no preamble.

“Um,” Santa said, “Santa will see what he can do about that. You, uh, have you been good this year?”

“Yeah.”

“Why don’t we ask your, uh….” The Santa squinted at Steve.

“Uncle Steve,” she supplied.

“Yeah, your Uncle Steve. Why don’t we ask him how you’ve been?”

“She’s been great,” Steve said, smiling.

“Then Santa will do his very best to get you that stuffed kitty.”

She hopped off his lap and immediately got distracted when she saw one of her friends in the line at the counter. Meanwhile, the line of children there to see Santa had tapered off, and the Santa took a deep, shaky breath.

“Oh my god,” he muttered.

“You okay?” Steve said, smiling. Then he looked closer and a hint of recognition stirred in his mind. He realized after a moment that it was because he was 99 percent sure this was the really attractive guy who usually stood behind the counter wearing a name tag that said “James” or something. “Hey, aren’t you usually up there?” he asked, gesturing.

“Uh, yeah.”

“James, right?”

“Please, call me Bucky. Only Natasha–my boss–calls me James.”

“Right. Bucky. So did you volunteer for this or did Natasha rope you into it?”

Bucky laughed. “This was definitely not my choice. Kids terrify me.”

“Honestly, same. I love my friend’s kid, but I’m so scared something awful will happen and I’ll have to tell him I lost her or something.”

“I mean, don’t get me wrong, they’re adorable, I just don’t know what to say to them.”

“It gets easier.”

“You look familiar, do you come in here a lot?”

“Yeah, I’m kind of addicted to the turnovers.”

Bucky chuckled at that. “Me too. It’s so hard having to be around them all day. I don’t want to like, gain a lot of weight, but I think it’s inevitable.”

Steve secretly thought Bucky would look cute if he put on some weight, but he wasn’t going to say that.

“Bucky!” A voice came from behind them. “Quit flirting and start acting like Santa.”

Steve turned to see a small red-haired woman, giving Bucky an affectionate glare.

Bucky coughed. “Yeah, so, I better–”

“Yeah, totally.”

“Are you still gonna be busy with her this afternoon? ‘Cause I was thinking–”

“No! I mean, yeah. I mean, I’m not busy.”

“Yeah?” Bucky smiled. “Wanna meet me back here at like four and I’ll try to sneak you some turnovers?”

Steve beamed. “Yeah, I’d like that.”

“Uncle Steve!”

Steve jumped at the sound of the little girl’s voice suddenly behind them.

“Are you gonna be Mrs. Claus?”

Steve turned bright red. “I, uh–”

“We’ll see,” Bucky said, winking.

Steve smiled down at the ground. “C’mon,” he said, “let’s go find your dad.” He waved over his shoulder as they left, his cheeks still pink. He had a date.


End file.
